Rotary cleaner-carrier



R. C. HIMMEL.

ROTARY CLEANER CARRIER.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 11, 1920.

PatentedSept. 13, 1921-.

2 SHEETSSHEET I.

R. C. HIMMEL.

ROTARY CLEANER CARRIER.

PLICATI 1 E? A f ,1920. 1,390,43 PatentedSept. 13,1921.

1 I 2 EEEE TS- EEEEE 2.

ROBERT o. HIMMEL, or TOPEKA, ILLnvoIs. I

ROTARY cLEANna-oARRi'ER.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that ROBERT C. HIMM L, citizen of the United States, residing at T0- peka, in the county of Mason and State of Illinois, has invented certain new and useful Improvements in -Rotary Cleaner-Carriers,

of which the following is a specification, ref-' erence being had to the accompanying drawings. y

over, before a discharge into a blower.

I. carrier evenly, and at the same time keeping it in a unlform forward movement.

The present device further includes means comprising intermeshing blades arranged in series, each series being carried by a shaft or drum, and each blade of each series being beveled upon its forward moving edges to prevent knocking or throwing the loose grain, thereby facilitatingthe advancing of the straw to the blower. Mainlythis cleaner-carrier distinguishes fromall other separators," in that it eliminates all up and down and side vibrations,

' or shaking movements, which are common bodies the strongpoint in the fact that it of the blades 15, and Y 7 in all present day separators, thereby econofmizin'g the power and prolonging the wear' of the machine. This apparatus alsoemthoroughly completes the'fseparation of the :embodied in'the co-pending application of 7 far, be constructed more compact, eliminat- 1 mach ne and ISQPOSltlOIIGd lm'mediately lye-409,595, the threshing machine may, by

i ing all the expensiveand cumbersome lat- 'eral and up andv down shaking devices,

which consume considerable space in the 1 construction. 1 a p Additionally the invention aims to time adjacent series is horizontal, thereby facili-- Specification of Letters Fatent. Pa bgnted he present rotary cleaner-carrier has for its ob ect to provide 1mproved means for continuously beatlng and turning the straw i the cylinder. 9 and; the chain 'clrivel7,

.ceives power from the cf the cylinder 2. w H The cleaner-carriercoinprlses a plurahity tating the transference of the straw from one series of blades to another, and so on until the straw is advanced to the blower.

Furtherinvention finally aimsto provide means employed in: conjunction withfthe drivlng means for the cleaner-carrier for preventing. retrograde movement of -the cleaner-carrier, when the power is reversed. Whilethe design andconstruction-at present illustrated and set forth is dee'lned' pref erable,-it is obvious that as a resu lt of reduction of the invention to a more practical form l for commercial purposes, theQin e'ntion-may be susceptible ofchanges', and the right to these'changes is claimech' provided what is claimed.

through a threshing machine, showing the V cleaner-earner as applied and constructedin accordance-with theinventiony Y "Fig.2 is a view in side'elevationof a portion of the casing 1 showing the driving mechanism for the cleaner-carrier, -namely Fig. 3 is a sectionalplan'view of the ;c aslng showing the cleaner-carrier in plari', f

F1g.'4c isan enlarged detail 'view of one Fig. 5 is a sectional view on 'line oaof- Fi 4. V a 1 .Referring more especially to the drawings,'l designates the casingof a 'portion'of a threshingmachine, and 2'den'otesf a 'co' n- ".vention'al form of thresher"lcylinderyand' the concave, with which' the cylinder coop- I er'ates. The cylinder 2"is design'edto be as indicated at 4.-

I operated by any suitable means, such as that 'R. (II-Iimmel, filed Sept. 11, 1920, Serial V A beater 5jis'carried by a shaft GI IiOllDtdi' in bearings of theframeo'f'thefthreshing above an extension 7 ofthe concave, thereby 3 der to the cleaner-carrier. The shaft: Scar-irie's apulley 8, and engaging thereabout is a 'belt'9,which in turntravels about and 'repulley 1 0 offthe-"slraft se t..13,}1pa1. -App1ication filed September 11,1920. Seria1No.409,59 4. l

they are comprehended within the scope'of.

of shafts 11 and the end shafts 12 and 13,

and mounted upon the shafts are the hubs 14, which carry the cleaner and carrier blades 15. It will be noted that these blades are so relatively disposed, that when the cleaner-carrier is in operation, certain of the blades will assume substantially a vertical position, and other of the blades will assume orizontal positions. In other words, the blades are arranged so that at all times the spaces between the shafts are protected, so

alined transversely. The collars are so ar ranged upon the shaft so that the blades will be in series, and each series will consist of more than one group, for instance two groups, although it is obvious that many other roups may be provided. Further more, the number of shafts may be increased or decreased, it depending, of course, as to the size of the interior of the casing of the separator of a threshing machine, and also depending'upon the length of the blades.

Each blade is designed to be constructed of hard wood, substantially two feet more or less in length, and is beveled upon its forward moving edge to prevent knocking or throwing the loose grain. The beveled edges of the blades act to break the straw, in order to facilitate the feeding of the straw through the machine, during the cleaning process. In other words the beveling of the blades cause edges to be formed, in order to snap or break the straw, without cutting the same. In fact shouldthe blades be the same thickness throughout their length, the majority of the straw will be simply, lifted from one set of blades to another, and would not tend to shake the straw very, much, order to insure a thorough cleaning. Furthermore should the blades be made of uniform thickness throughout, the straw would be whipped or lifted from one set to another. However by providing the beveled edges,

themajority of thestraw is broken, not out,

owing to the blades being made of wood, andin view of this the cleaning of the straw is greatly facilitated. Also it will be noted that when one set of bladeslift'the straw, toward anadjacent set, the blades of the ad acent set or group act to more or less slidethe straw from the. firstrset. This is particularly true owing to the ends of the bladesbeingcurved or rounded off, as well as being beveled, and even though thewblades may be constructedof metal, the idea ofone :set ofthe blades sliding the straw from an adjacent set, during the rotation of the groups of blades,the straw is not very apt to be cut. Furthermore should the blades be made of metal though they are to be made preferably-of wood, the bevels of the blades will not be such as to provide cutting edges.

The shafts 12 and 13 carry sprockets 15 and 16 over which a sprocket chain 17 engages. This sprocketchain also travels over the sprockets 18, which are carried by the intermediate transverse cleaner-carrier shafts 11, so that when power is transmitted to one of the shafts l1, movement will be imparted to theother shafts.

One of the shafts 11 is provided with a .pulley 19, about which thebelt 9 travels. One of the shafts 11 is provided with a ratchet 20 splined or otherwise fixed thereto, and pivotally mounted a'sat 21 on the sprocket 19 is a. dog orpawl 22, which cooperates with the teeth of the ratchet 20.

It will be noted that the sprocket 19 is,

loose upon one of the shafts 11, while the ratchet 20 is fixed thereon, hence when move ment is imparted to the belt 9, moving pulley 19 in the direction of the arrow at, the pawl or dog 22 will engage the teeth of the ratchet and impart movement to one of the shafts 11. Since the sprocket chain 17 engages the sprockets 18, which are carried by the shafts 11 and about the sprockets 15 and 16, movement will be imparted to the various shafts, and hence cause movement of the blades, which will intermesh in the manner previously stated for the purpose 'of advancing the straw to the blower. V v,

Arranged below the cleaner-carrier is what may be termed a rotary grain. pan 23, which comprises the shafts 24 and 25, which carry the sprocket 26. Engaged about the sprockets are sprocket chains 27, which are cross-connected by the rods or bars 28. These rods or bars travel close toand over a suitable metallic covered floor 29. This floor is covered with any suitable sheet metal, preferably sheet iron or the like and a rear portion of this floor, substantially one-third of it, is provided withperforations 30, through which the grain passes as the bars or rods move over the surface of the floor. The material passing through the perforations drops upona plate 31in a. relatively thin column, thereby permitting a better action of the air from the blower thereon. The shaft 25 hasa sprocket 32, about which a sprocket chain 33 engages. The chain 33' in turn engages about asprocket'3 1 on the shaft 13, so that when the cleaner carrier is put in motion,-power is also transmitted to the rotary grain pan. Qne end of the rotary grain pan is disposed immediately over the blower, such as indicated at 35. i In the operation the cleaner-carrier receives the straw as it leaves the cylinder beater and racks continuing the process of separating, at the same time turn ng the straw and giving it a forward movement, without any chance of escape, waste or choking until the separating of all grain is complete.

In order to hold the chain in mesh with the teeth of the sprocket, a. plurality of chain tighteners 36 are provided. These chain tighteners are disposed above and below the upper and lower parts of the chain, so as to retain the chain in engagement with the teeth of the sprockets. In fact the chain tighteners act to prevent the chain from slipping from engagement with the teeth of the sprockets, thereby insuring the imparting movement to the shafts.

The invention having been set forth, what is claimed as new and useful is:

1. In a machine for the purpose indicated, a casing having a separator chamber, a threshing cylinder and heater in the forward part thereof and including means for driving the latter from the former, a rotary grain pan having its forward end under the cylinder and the beater with its remaining portion extending rearwardly to carry the grain from the cylinder to the rear, a cleaner-carrier with its forward end operable partially under the beater and having its remaining portion inclined slightly upwardly and extending rearward, said cleaner-carrier being disposed over the greater part of the rotary grain pan, said cleaner-carrier comprising a series of shafts arranged in parallelism, each shaft being disposed on a slightly increased higher plane toward the rear of the chamber thereby inoff, the sharpened edges extending over the rounded portions of the arms, means for driving the shafts simultaneously in the same direction, and means operatively'connecting the shaft and the thresher and the beater for transmitting motion thereto, and means for operatively connecting between the carrier and the rotary grain pan.

2. In a machine for the purpose indicated, a casing having a separator chamber, a cleaner-carrier mounted therein comprising a plurality of rotating shafts in spaced parallelism, said shafts being disposed upon relatively increased higher planes to the rear of the casing, a series of arms carried by each shaft and comprising a plurality of groups, the arms of each group intermeshing with the arms of the groups of an adjacent series of arms, said arms having certain of their edges merging into rounded portions, at the ends of the arms and being sharpened in the direction of the rotation of the shafts, the sharpened edges extending over the rounded portions of the arms, and means for driving the shafts simultaneously.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

ROBERTO. HIMMEL. 

